Cat rescued from 1999 Port St. Lucie brush fires needs a new home | Photo gallery

ERIC HASERT/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS
Andrea Nicholson, Cat Adoption Coordinator at Dogs and Cats Forever, grooms Little Soldier, an older cat in need of a home. Little Soldier first made headlines 13 years ago on June 23, 1999 after the kitten was found injured from the Port St. Lucie brush fires.Little Soldier's owner recently died and the cat is in need of a new home. " "He's not your everyday personality and somebody's going to be very lucky to have him," Nicholson said.

ERIC HASERT/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS
A copy of the June 23, 1999 newspaper featuring Little Soldier's ordeal as a kitten 13 years ago is seen along side the cat at the Dogs & Cats Forever Shirley B. Wells Adoption Center at 4600 Selvitz Road in Fort Pierce where Little Soldier now awaits a new home.

When a wildfire burned 42 homes and 2,400 acres in Port St. Lucie 13 years ago, the damage wasn't the only thing making headlines. In the wake of a front-page story on June 23, 1999, the community rallied around one of the fire's tiniest victims.

The plight of a badly burned 2-month-old tuxedo kitten, whose back foot had to be amputated a month later, was making the news. The story quoted resident Linda Ewolt, upon whose doorstep the mother cat had dropped her three kittens, one by one, after pulling them from the burning brush.

The last one rescued was Little Soldier, as Ewolt called him because he reminded her of wounded troops returning from war.

The story had a happy ending, as two kittens were adopted and Ewolt ended up keeping Little Soldier and his mother.

Now the bad news. Ewolt's daughter recently brought Little Soldier — accompanied by the front-page story about him — to a Fort Pierce animal shelter in search of a new home for the cat. Ewolt died, leaving behind the 13-year-old, 12-pound cat who's on a special diet for urine crystals, which could make it difficult to find him a home.

Little Soldier would be best suited in a quiet home without dogs or children and not much door traffic, said Andrea Nicholson, Dogs and Cats Forever's cat adoption coordinator. He may get along with another cat, but Nicholson hasn't tested him yet.

"He's very talkative, very chatty. He moves just as fast as a cat with four legs. He can go anywhere he wants to go. He's docile; he just seems confused to be here. ... He's just the handsome-ist thing, very fluffy," she said, adding he apparently has some Maine Coon in him.

When Ewolt's daughter brought Little Soldier to the shelter, Nicholson insisted she leave the news article about him.

"She held the paper up for us to see and I really didn't even think twice. I said, 'This is the cat from the fires and we have to help him,' " she said, hoping his story will inspire someone to adopt him. "Maybe they'll say, 'Oh yeah, he needs our help.' "